Gitomer: Timeless routes to success

Napoleon Hill’s classic “Think and Grow Rich” is full of timeless lessons.

“Thoughts are things” is the title and the first words of the first chapter of the book.

When I first read those words, I didn’t really understand what they meant – even after I read the first chapter and the examples Hill offered.

It didn’t resonate until I got to the end of the chapter and read, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, and believe, it can achieve.” Then I started to get it. That was 1972.

By coincidence, it was only a few days later that I heard the late, great Earl Nightingale say, “You become what you think about.” At that moment, I got it. It clicked. And it has clicked ever since then.

More reading and studying about thinking and the thought process revealed that neither Hill nor Nightingale had the original thought.

From Socrates to Samuel Smiles, to Orison Swett Marden, to Elbert Hubbard, to Dale Carnegie, to Napoleon Hill, to Earl Nightingale, to Jim Rohn – they all had their own way of saying THE SAME THING.

Got it? Sure you do. Getting it, that’s the easy part. First you get it, you understand it, then you agree with it. Easy so far. Then the harder part: You have to believe you can do it. You have to THINK YOU CAN. Finally, the hardest part is you have to be willing to TAKE ACTION! Do it! That’s chapter one. Read it lately?

The rest of “Think and Grow Rich” contains the ideas, the definitions and the clarifications that provide the answers. Hill describes it as the road map to riches. I’m telling you, it’s the most important success thinking you’ll ever be exposed to – as long as you repeat it until it becomes your reality.

But I have to stop here and clarify the book. “Think and Grow Rich” is not written in today’s language.

There are no references to computers, email, the Internet, Facebook, social media, credit cards or even television. Because none of those things existed when Hill penned this classic self-help book, which has managed to sell more than 100 MILLION copies.

To receive all the wealth in the book, you have to get over the fact “Think and Grow Rich” was written 70 years ago. These books aren’t 70 years old. Rather, they were 70 years ahead of their time. Maybe that’s why Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” and Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” have been on bestseller lists for 70 years.

The first chapter ends the same way it began. With one sentence of immortal wisdom. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, and believe, it can achieve.”

I’m sharing this information today in the hope you will read or re-read this timeless classic. Rededicate yourself to YOUR best thinking (first), so you can do your best for others (second).